A Russian military who surrendered to the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) forces in the Donbas confirmed participation of the Russian staff officers in hostilities on the demarcation line.

A serviceman of a reconnaissance company of the "3rd Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade" (Horlivka) of the "1st Army Corps" of the Armed Forces of Russia, Russian citizen Denis Sidorov (born Aug. 4, 1981) surrendered to the ATO forces in the vicinity of Shyroka Balka village.

He provided information on the presence and activity of Russian military personnel, as well as regular units of the Russian Armed Forces in the temporarily occupied territories of the Donbas.

According to him, all command positions of the "3rd Brigade" are occupied by personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In mid-August, a new Russian officer was appointed to the position of division commander and received the old brigade commander's call-sign Brest. Sidorov confirmed that Colonel of the Russian Armed Forces Alexey Berdnikov headed the "Brigade" in August, having replaced Major-General Igor Timofeev, and identified his picture. Berdnikov came from Primorsky Krai, where he commanded a mechanized infantry brigade.

The prisoner said that officers of regular units of the air defense of the Russian Federation Armed Forces often come to commander Berdnikov in Horlivka lately. He identified photos of the officers of the 60th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 5th Army of the Eastern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces: the chief of Air Defense - chief of Air Defense Staff of the 60th Brigade Lieutenant Colonel Sergey Tupichenko; commander of the Air Defense Missile Battalion of the brigade Major Yuriy Korchinskiy, and Chief of Staff - deputy commander of the Air Defense Missile Battalion of the brigade Major Alexey Kireev.

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